October 06 2004 at 04:10AM
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| By Babalo Ndenze | |
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Land invasions could pose a threat in the upgrading of informal settlements along the N2 from Cape Town International Airport, says city engineer Peter Oscroft.
Oscroft heads the team of local, provincial and national government officials spearheading the R800-million N2 Gateway project.
There were no threats from members of the communities as such, but these communities also included a "vast number of backyard" dwellers, he told the Institute for Housing of South Africa's international conference in Cape Town.
In one area that had started off with about 40 residents, the population had burgeoned to about 7 000 with backyard dwellers.
"About 70 percent of all opportunities would go to the informal settlements and about 30 percent would go to backyard dwellers."
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Oscroft said this would be done because once these areas were cleared for development, a threat of invasion could arise.
"One vital issue would be the need to protect vacant land against unlawful resettlement."
One of the resettlement options would be to open land spaces near the settlements to reduce the distance people had to travel once the project was under way.
Land was one of the most important aspects for the project, Oscroft said.
"Land is a crucial issue, and who gets to go where.
"We haven't cracked it yet but we are having meetings and talking to communities and ward committees."
Oscroft said the key challenges the team faced were funding, land and queues.
The Barcelona, New Rest, Kanana and Joe Slovo informal settlements on the N2 strip would be upgraded, with new roads and formal housing, he said.
The project had "visions" for all these areas and was also based on developing community facilities between the airport and the city.
A vision for Barcelona, near Gugulethu, would be to provide agricultural, sporting, formal housing and other facilities.
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